Paul's blog 9th grade

What is this engineering task?

This engineering task is a design challenge where we have to make a product based on the 4 options.

1. Design and make a toy that converts energy.

2. Take a renewable energy source& convert it into electrical energy.

3. Design and create a device that transfers energy.

4. Design and make a device that can be used to learn physics.

While choosing these options, we need to consider few things.

Things we have to consider:

What is the problem?

What is the purpose and who is my client?

Even though the solar car did not work the way I wanted, I saw that it was possible to make it work. One main reason why the solar car didn’t work is even though I placed every piece in the right places, the gear did not spin continuously, it started and stopped, didn’t allow the car to move. I think this occurred because the tape was holding a part of the gear. Another reason why I think the gear did not turn properly is that the axle and the gear were too close, which would have made the gear to be not turnable. If I do the same project next time, I am going to invest more time in making the motor and the axle in contact and making sure that when the motor is spinning, the gear attached to it will allow the axle to rotate and make the car move. Overall, it was a good experience because we were exposed to an environment of faliure, and creating a solution to solve the problem like what actual engineers do.

This was the first design that I was going to test out.

My idea was that using a wooden dowel to connect the wheels and use the straw as the axle. What I did was put the wooden dowel through the straw and joining with the wheels.

I was finding a way to make the wheels stable. By this stage, the teacher came to me and said you might want to try other wheels.

I found a wheel that has hole sized almost same as the wooden dowel so that the connection will be more stable. After I attached the wooden dowel to one wheel to another I attempted to locate the wooden body on top of the axle and wooden dowel. I found a problem that as soon as I put the wooden body on top of the wheels, the structure fell apart. So I utilized 4 pieces of electrical tape that is about 8cm and 4 rubber bands to fortify the stableness of the product when every part is put together. I used the tape the strengthen the bond of the hole of the wheel and the wooden dowel. I used the rubber band to make sure that the pieces do not get off.

The dimensions of the chassis:

Length of the chassis is about 2 times the length of the solar panel.

The width of the chassis is little less than 1.5 times the width of the solar panel.

The dimensions changed during the process of creating and improving.

Then, I placed the chassis on the axle, the sides of the chassis was touching the wheels, therefore, I had to change the dimensions of the chassis.

This is the structure of chassis that perfectly solves the problem that I encountered previously which is stability, and enough distance from the wheel to the side of the chassis.

As you see, there are holes on the chassis where the axle and the wooden dowel can pass through. The size of the hole is not too big, therefore can maintain its position when moving forwards. Also, the electric tape is used to make the linking of wooden dowel and the axle with the wheel stronger. I attached the solar panel on the chassis making the part that needs to get the light facing upwards. I attached a gear on the motor that made contact with the axle in the back of the car so when light energy is applied, the motor will activate and the gear will turn with power, which will allow the car to move.

This is a video of the car. I applied the light source that has high light intensity. Test

When the light source is applied to the solar panel, solar panel converts the light energy to electricity.

My sketch of the model:

My plan:

Thursday: Gather material, Start prototyping.

Monday: Continue prototyping and test the prototype. This stage, I should have made a structure for the body of the car, the wooden cardboard, motor and the wheels attached.

Wednesday: Test the prototype and revision if needed.

Friday: Test and finalize.

I created a accompaniment of a famous piano piece called ‘Lake Louise’ with 2 different sound (which I also played with piano but I just changed setup, the sound of the instrument. Some of my successes were that I completed my goal,and some of my challenges were that it was complicated to use garage band and connecting wires that goes along with the piano and the computer. Also, I recording multiple time to not make a single mistake. I wish the this will encourage more people to like/listen more to classical music. I am going to continue doing these in next year’s one day too. Click to download the powerpoint. onedayjournal2017

Physically painful thing that I have experienced was when I got ear infection. Something that I learned was after swimming, I should get rid of water in my right ear. Also, instead of going to the Chinese hospital, I should go to Korea hospital, because after I got treatment in China and when I went to Korea, the doctors said you shouldn’t have been treated like that, and said you should have got differently treated. I can’t take away the experience, but if I can take it away, I would very likely to take away. It is because it was the worst thing I have ever experienced and I wasted money and wasted time going to the hospital in China instead of going to school and also almost missed a presentation that I have been working very hard.

Today I’m working in period 1 and 2, then do exhibition in period 5. This is how my design came out. Some shape didn’t come out and the the circle wasn’t cutted, but it was okay.

My final change

Today I heard that when teacher printed mine one with the cool fonts and it didn’t work and one with normal fonts worked, but there was a bit of a problem so I fixed it and I changed a little bit. It looks like this. After that I had nothing to do so I used my time to complete powerpoint and choosing where to put the welcome sign. I chose print the design with wood. I am going to put it in the one of the windows in the 1st floor entrance of the FA space. But unfortunately, the file type that I saved didn’t work. So tomorrow morning, me and my teacher will work together to solve this. Tomorrow I am going to do exhibition.

My first change

I made my design more detailed and use feedbacks to improved it. It looks like this.

I am going to finalize the design and print it and start to fill in the powerpoint for the exhibition.

Today I started to make something with adobe illustrator for FA space. My teacher let me and classmates to go through FA space and get some ideas what to make for FA space. I decided to make a welcome sign. I looks like this.

Tomorrow I am going to make more detailed and add if necessary.